Idaho Senate Minority Leader Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, listens to action on the Senate floor at the State Capitol building in Boise on Jan. 9, 2023. (Otto Kitsinger for Idaho Capital Sun)
A bill to expand contraception access in Idaho is making its way to the Senate floor after a public hearing in the Senate Commerce and Human Resources Committee Thursday afternoon.
Senate Bill 1234 would require that insurance companies provide up to a six month supply of prescribed contraceptives to enrollees. The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, said the bill would make it easier for women who only have access to a one or three month supply of contraceptives under their current insurance plan.
Wintrow said this is the fifth time this type of legislation has made its way through the capitol, and it is her third time introducing this kind of legislation.
Wintrow said she has made changes to the legislation to address the concerns of insurance companies, anti-abortion groups and fellow legislators who previously opposed the legislation when it died on the floor of the House of Representatives in 2022.